It received broadly bipartisan support Monday in the Senate,<\/a> where Republicans hold a 27-23 majority. <\/p>\nIt now heads to the state House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
“The Pennsylvania Senate acted swiftly today to strengthen penalties for individuals who attempt to murder our law enforcement officers,” Baker said during the rotunda press conference, video of which was made available by Senate Republican officials, along with a prepared statement.<\/p>\n
“This action is in recognition of the courage, bravery and resilience of Det. Kyle Gilmartin,” Baker said. “It ensures that no other officer or their family will ever face the possibility of a convicted criminal getting off with a slap on the wrist sentence for trying to kill a police officer.”<\/p>\n
Brown agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis critical legislation closes a gap in sentencing and ensures that those who attempt to take an officer\u2019s life are held fully accountable,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
“I urge the House to take up this important measure,\u201d Brown added.<\/p>\n
Democrats hold a 102-99 majority in the House with two pending vacancies.<\/p>\n
Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher, a Democrat whose conversations with Baker helped inspire the bill, agreed.<\/p>\n
“When you read this bill, two things are abundantly clear: It is not partisan, which is exactly how it should be. This is about public safety, it’s about protecting law enforcement, Gallagher said. <\/p>\n
“And second, it is narrowly tailored to a specific set of circumstances,” he said.<\/p>\n
“When someone knowingly attempts to commit first-degree murder of a police officer \u2014 that is knowing they’re a police officer and with the specific intent to kill them, and they cause serious bodily injury \u2014 in that scenario, a 20-year mandatory minimum is not only appropriate, it is absolutely necessary,” Gallagher said.<\/p>\n
![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777973289_319_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
State Sen. Lisa Baker speaks about Senate Bill 1284 during a press conference Monday afternoon, May 4, 2026 in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg. Among those listening, from left, are Scranton Police Det. Kyle Gilmartin, Wyoming County District Attorney Joe Peters, Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher and state Sen. Rosemary Brown, who co-sponsored the legislation.<\/p>\n
‘A 20-year mandatory sentence is just’<\/p>\n
Gallagher was joined Monday by representatives including the Pennsylvania State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association and his fellow DAs from Northeast Pennsylvania: Sam Sanguedolce of Luzerne County, Marion O\u2019Malley of Susquehanna County, Joe Peters of Wyoming County, A.G. Howell of Wayne County and Ray Tonkin of Pike County.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone attempts to murder a police officer and leaves that officer with life-changing injuries, a 20-year mandatory sentence is just,” Gallagher said. <\/p>\n
“When you inflict catastrophic harm, traumatic brain injury, limited use of your limbs, when you take away someone’s career, when you limit their interaction with their family, their friends, their officers, when you hurt their relationships with their children or their wives or their spouses or their department, a 20-year mandatory minimum is appropriate,” Gallagher said.<\/p>\n
Gilmartin is living that reality.<\/p>\n
“I just want to thank God for allowing me to be here and thank God that all these individuals came into my life, and helped me carry my family through this event,” he said.<\/p>\n
“State, local, federal law enforcement, they’re just normal guys that have families, just want to go home to their kids at night,” Gilmartin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scranton Police Det. Kyle Gilmartin will never forget the night that changed his life forever. “I was at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-184179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}